The only question here is: Will the Dollar Federal Reserve Note last that long.
But that answer is too simple for such a complex questions, and makes a really short post.
There are many forces that will move silver prices into the astronomical ranges, at minimum.
- Scarcity
- Only Silver can do that (no replacements)
- Future tech
- Running low on above ground suppies
Silver is truly a wonder-metal. Only oil has more uses in manufacturing (currently)
Silver will become a strategic metal to militaries / govern-cements around the world.
So, silver will go past $1000 per ounce, and it is really just a matter of when you should sell. Past a point, it will be sold for whatever the govern-cement sets the price at.
The calm before the storm
Right now, manufacturers who use silver are making strategic arrangements with mines to pay to increase their production, and then they will buy the entire mines production.
Silver's price has been manipulated for a long time.
The manipulators have sold most of the known stashes of silver to maintain the manipulation.
The Hunt brothers got tortured for daring to try to break the manipulation.
However, something bigger is coming for the manipulators, the industry needs silver. Real, physical silver. And as the COMEX plays at selling the entire world's yearly supply of silver every day, the people that need silver, will pay almost any price for it.
There will soon be two prices for silver. The paper price and the physical price.
We will see hundreds of dollars an ounce for silver.
While silver is still seen as a monetary metal
People will talk, during this time, of silver and gold, as a bi-metal monetary system that we should return to. And as the price of silver and gold continues to rise, there will be more and more gold bugs who see it as inevitable that we return to monetary metals.
Trump (or the next person) will offer a backed-currency, as the FRNs start inflating hard. People will be leery to accept a new fiat (unbacked) currency. So, Trump (probably) will offer a new currency, minted through the Treasury, that will be backed by a basket of commodities (oil, gold, bitcoin…) The timing of this is hard to say, however the value of silver will be much higher.
During this short time, we will see coin shops buying silver, mountains of silver for higher and higher prices. The price will be over $500 an ounce, and $1000 an ounce is easily seeable.
Of course there will be vans in parking lots offering to buy silver/gold for cash. It might even be the way people get cash when the banks close. (the overlapping timing gets harder to predict)
When silver becomes a strategic reserve
And then new technologies come about that NEEED silver.
Something like, free energy devices. (not silver batteries) Or some kind of new electronic chip that is a flow control device as easy to use as a MOSFET. There won't be one new use for silver, there will be many. Once the two isotopes of silver are understood, the doors get thrown open.
LCD screens NEED silver to create the micro-thin wires that activate each pixel. And so little silver is need per panel, that the manufacturers will pay whatever they need to continue manufacturing. Imagine the iPhone needing $100 of silver. Everyone will pay it. It is not that big of a price difference overall.
Anyway, many of these new technologies will be considered national security level stuff. And the govern-cements will be getting involved. Silver will no longer be allowed across borders. Silver will be sold, only to the govern-cement, and only for $XXXX.00
The govern-cement will probably not gouge people, because they will want the silver. And they know if they outlaw it, then people will just bury it, and good luck finding it. (a person's house is easy to search. All the people in a small town becomes really hard. A city, impossible)
And, what may really suck (or be really beneficial, depending on how you look at it) is that this exchange may be one of the best ways to get your hands on new-dollars. You need new-dollars to pay for things, and the banks were all shut down, and the bank accounts closed, and it is taking FDIC forever to go through all the records. And they are only giving out $50 a week (or day) at the exchange places. But, if you show up with silver, you get shiny new-dollars in your hand (maybe no questions asked, or at least no taxes)
I believe there will be a peak point where you could sell your silver for the most amount of dollars.
And there will be a point after where you will KICK yourself that you should have sold. And, probably, even further down the road, you will find it almost impossible to sell or trade silver. (i am unsure if this is because all the govern-cements collapse, and so the big buyers are gone, or everyone has a free energy device, or something even bigger)
So, it might be appropriate to dollar-cost-average out of silver.
Or plan a path of getting all the things you would want to get if you had lots of money. Like that dream homestead.
Trade your silver for something you feel is worth it.
I cannot give a price for the top for silver, as i stated in the beginning, how long will the FRN be around for? It could be thousands of FRNs for an ounce of silver towards the end. (or like billions of Zimbabwe Notes) And then the new-Dollars are exchanged at 100 FRNs for $1 new-Dollar. And then, silver will only be worth $15. Like, where we started so long ago.